Of no account

by Ruth Lamb

Then Adam looked at his spare form and homely features, and thought, with a sigh, that he was too old, too plain, too poor for one so young and pretty as Maggie. His dimly-conceived plans for self-improvement must be given up if he married, for in this case he would have to work for a wife, instead of a mother. Well! He had never been afraid of work, and he thought, if he only had such a face as that to look on, and such a voice to cheer him on, he could do more and better than he had hitherto done.

It is easy to foresee the end of these musings. Maggie Allison's image drove out every other tenant from Adam's mind. Her mother, having a shrewd suspicion that the girl would not remain single for her sake, and wishing to keep her near at hand, encouraged his advances, and Maggie was won by the almost reverential wooing of this hitherto reserved and silent man.

There was really only six years difference in their ages, and, under the influence of this new affection, Adam grew younger looking, whilst his natural intelligence lighted up his face, and hope gave it a new expression.

"He worships the very ground I tread on, and I am certain he has never thought about anybody else in all his life," said Maggie; and she was right.

So the two married, and whilst there were only two, things were fairly bright. Adam poured his wages into his wife's hands, as he had formerly done into his mother's, and wished he had more to bring.

Children came, and Maggie could no longer manage to afford herself the bits of finery in which her soul delighted. She found that plenty for two, was but a scanty allowance for four, and scantier still for six, and grumbled accordingly.

Mrs. Allison helped a little from time to time, but finding that Maggie's appeals became more and more frequent, she grew tired, and, without having told her daughter until almost the last moment, left the cottage next door, and went to live near another of her children, whose circumstances were comparatively prosperous.

This was a terrible blow to Adam and his wife, especially the latter. Mrs. Allison went, as if only on a visit to her elder daughter, and then, having taken a cottage, sent a person with authority to remove her goods to the new home.

Then Adam Livesey had an opportunity of judging as to the relative merits of a silent, gloomy mother, and one who was too often a fretful, disappointed, scolding wife.

It had been pleasant, for a time, to be worshipped, to be of the first importance, to have Adam's eyes following her every movement with delighted wonder, to receive from his hands all that he had to give. But after all, Maggie found that they had not much in common, and when money ran short, that admiring looks would not make amends for the lack of it. So the wife grumbled at being a domestic slave, and being quick-tempered as well as keen-witted, often made the house too hot for husband and children.